When pastors chase ministry greatness, making success our ultimate goal, I have to wonder: are we telling the story of our culture, or the story of Jesus? Is our life, our ministry, about making a name for ourselves, or is it about getting out of the way, shrinking down our egos, and getting smaller? Nearly every pastor or ministry leader I’ve ever met operates with the underlying assumption that their job is to make their ministry successful. When leaders accept this premise, using it as a guiding principle, they allow the American story of bigger, better, higher, faster, and stronger to dictate the terms of leadership, over and above the life and teachings of Jesus. Jesus was not about success. Jesus was about faithfulness. This wholesale acceptance of the cultural value of success has had a profound impact on the Western church. Perhaps the most powerful reason the church is in decline in North America right now is that the church’s way of being in the world does not represent a genuine alternative to the way of the dominant culture. When the church becomes an agent of the culture, indistinguishable in most ways from society at large, people cease to see the value in belonging, and they opt out.
Posted on: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 14:05:42 +0000